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Re: Vivian Mairer in NYC until Jan 28th 2012.

I saw it last weekend. Meh... There were a few I liked, but the selection on show, at least, didn't strike me as a basis for canonization.

FWIW, also in NYC, there's another Maier show running at the Steven Kasher gallery. I didn't get to see that one. One of the gallery attendants at Howard Greenberg had the courtesy to badmouth the Kasher show to another visitor who asked about it, insisting the pictures there were inferior and not Maloof-approved. Whatever...

Re: Vivian Mairer in NYC until Jan 28th 2012.

PS: I'll make this into a LF thread by adding that Judith Joy Ross, well known for her 8x10 POP contact printed environmental portraits, is showing at Pace/MacGill - mostly large color inkjets this time, though a couple of 8x10 B&W contact prints sneaked in.

Re: Vivian Maier in NYC until Jan 28th 2012.

Originally Posted by Oren Grad

I saw it last weekend. Meh... There were a few I liked, but the selection on show, at least, didn't strike me as a basis for canonization.

FWIW, also in NYC, there's another Maier show running at the Steven Kasher gallery. I didn't get to see that one. One of the gallery attendants at Howard Greenberg had the courtesy to badmouth the Kasher show to another visitor who asked about it, insisting the pictures there were inferior and not Maloof-approved. Whatever...

Re: Vivian Mairer in NYC until Jan 28th 2012.

Greetings, i would encourage you to visit the Vivian Maier show at the Steven Kasher Gallery ( to be expanded and running concurrently with Weegee's Jan. 12th opening). The images are from my collection, which contains over 15,000 Vivian Maier images. You can visit those images, and others, at my site: vivianmaierprints.com. A Vivian Maier is a Vivian Maier is a Vivian Maier!
All best and thanks, Jeff Goldstein

Re: Vivian Maier in NYC until Jan 28th 2012.

Interesting that we have discussions going in two separate threads about two deceased photographers whose work is getting a big play right now. Both are, IMHO, getting the play based primarily on the circumstances surrounding their photography and the resulting promotion, not on anything that would have merited that kind of attention otherwise.

Does anyone besides collectors, promoters, etc. really see something so compelling about Vivian Maier's photography as to differentiate it from that of any other decent street photographer working over that long a period in those locations? It seems to me that if one makes 100,000 or so photographs on the streets of Chicago and New York over roughly a 40 year period as she did, the law of averages and a thousand monkeys with a thousand typewriters says they're going to hit an occasional home run and that's about it.

I should add that I haven't seen the originals of her work, only reproductions. However, for this kind of photography I don't see that originals vs reproductions is that critical though I could be wrong.

Brian Ellis
Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you do criticize them you'll be
a mile away and you'll have their shoes.

Re: Vivian Maier in NYC until Jan 28th 2012.

Hi Allen, I do hope you have the chance to see the work at Kasher. I will be visiting NY at the time of the Kasher opening on the 12th. and would look forward to meeting with you, or anyone else, to chat. We are having our prints done by a master printer here in Chicago and the character of our prints has a different feel then that at Howard Greenberg's show. Perhaps it's the difference between Chicago sensibilities, ours, and a New Yorker's printing sensibility.
I will put out there that Vivian Maier spent the better part of her life shooting in Chicago, so dibs.
Brian, I too would be interested in meeting with you and discussing your points of view.
Best, Jeff